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September 02, 2011

An innovative format for Young Adult writers (& a pretty good book trailer)

Here’s an interesting format designed to appeal to reluctant boy readers—one of the toughest markets to crack for a Young Adult novelist.

The series in question is “Tony Hawk’s 900 Revolution.” The blurb says, “At the dawn of the new millennium, Tony Hawk landed the first ever 900, finally capturing the Holy Grail of skateboarding. At that moment in time…everything changed. A mysterious force shattered his board and scattered the pieces across the globe. Today, a talented group of teens unite in an eternal quest to bring the board and its power back together again.”

It’s billed as “adventure, action sports and sci-fi all rolled into one!” That hits all the genres that teen boys typically go for.

The format twist that makes it more interesting is that each book includes a 16-page graphic novel section. That might attract the reluctant reader, who may start by reading the graphic novel part and then move on to reading the rest of the book.

There are four books so far (of a projected 24), the first one by Donnie Lemke (with artist Caio Majdao), the others by M. Zachary Sherman and Majdao. To its credit the website has an author’s page with a brief bio and a Q & A for the two writers (not sure what happened to the artist's bio).

You can see the promo video for the series here—nicely in scynch with the target market, using stills from the graphic novel sections, titles, and some loud music and probably just the right length at 1:27 minutes.

PS: I’m only vaguely aware of Tony Hawk and I have no idea what the 900 is, but then I’m not the audience for this series.

Comments

An innovative format for Young Adult writers (& a pretty good book trailer)

Here’s an interesting format designed to appeal to reluctant boy readers—one of the toughest markets to crack for a Young Adult novelist.

The series in question is “Tony Hawk’s 900 Revolution.” The blurb says, “At the dawn of the new millennium, Tony Hawk landed the first ever 900, finally capturing the Holy Grail of skateboarding. At that moment in time…everything changed. A mysterious force shattered his board and scattered the pieces across the globe. Today, a talented group of teens unite in an eternal quest to bring the board and its power back together again.”

It’s billed as “adventure, action sports and sci-fi all rolled into one!” That hits all the genres that teen boys typically go for.

The format twist that makes it more interesting is that each book includes a 16-page graphic novel section. That might attract the reluctant reader, who may start by reading the graphic novel part and then move on to reading the rest of the book.

There are four books so far (of a projected 24), the first one by Donnie Lemke (with artist Caio Majdao), the others by M. Zachary Sherman and Majdao. To its credit the website has an author’s page with a brief bio and a Q & A for the two writers (not sure what happened to the artist's bio).

You can see the promo video for the series here—nicely in scynch with the target market, using stills from the graphic novel sections, titles, and some loud music and probably just the right length at 1:27 minutes.

PS: I’m only vaguely aware of Tony Hawk and I have no idea what the 900 is, but then I’m not the audience for this series.